Pedro Sánchez and Santiago Abascal will compete for viewers this Monday. The president of the Government will be interviewed by Javier Ruiz on La Séptima starting at 21:30, while the leader of Vox will go to La Revuelta, David Broncano’s program on La 1, at 21:55. Two interviews that will coincide during a large part of their broadcast, just four days before the official start of the campaign for the general elections on November 29.
Abascal’s visit to the TVE program had been announced since last week, while Sánchez’s participation in La Séptima was known afterward. For his interview, the president has chosen a channel that has just begun its broadcasts and that has Javier Ruiz as editorial director and presenter of La última hora, its main political analysis program.
The coincidence has opened a political and television dispute even before the interviews begin. Vox has accused Sánchez of trying to counterprogram Abascal, while the visit by the leader of the party to La Revuelta has been accompanied by a controversy over the modification of the audience that will attend the recording.
Abascal visits La Revuelta amid controversy over the audience
Santiago Abascal will be interviewed this Monday by David Broncano at the Teatro Albéniz in Madrid. The program will air starting at 21:55 on La 1 and can also be followed through RTVE Play.
The presence of Vox’s leader has generated expectations due to the political differences between the interviewee and the presenter, who in the past had expressed his refusal to invite him to his program. La Revuelta, however, has opened its doors to different candidates for the Presidency of the Government in connection with the general elections.
So far, Pedro Sánchez, on October 22, and Gabriel Rufián and Irene Montero, interviewed jointly on October 27, have already appeared on the program. Frente Amplio candidate Ada Colau has planned her visit for this Tuesday, November 10, while Alberto Núñez Feijóo has not yet confirmed whether he will accept the invitation.
Abascal’s interview has become wrapped in controversy after it was communicated to part of the usual audience that the recording would be carried out under different conditions. According to information published over the weekend, the initially convened attendees were called off and the composition of the audience was changed.
Sánchez himself mocked this circumstance on Sunday and questioned Vox leader’s “bravery,” by assuring that he would go on the program with an audience chosen by him. RTVE has not offered a detailed explanation about the reasons for the changes and, when consulted by different media, has referred to the program’s broadcast.
Vox accuses Sánchez of a “temper tantrum of a small child”
The coincidence of the two interviews has also provoked a reaction from Vox’s leadership. Its secretary general, Ignacio Garriga, has expressed this Monday his desire for Abascal’s intervention “to blow up in audience figures” in contrast to Sánchez’s.
During a media briefing in Seville, Garriga described the president’s interview on La Séptima as a “temper tantrum of a small child” and criticized that it had been arranged “in a hurry and on the fly on a chain that has hired friends on salary.”
Vox’s leader has encouraged citizens to follow Abascal’s intervention on TVE, despite acknowledging that, in other circumstances, he would not recommend watching Broncano’s program because, in his view, “it’s not worth it.”
The statements reflect the importance that Vox places on its candidate’s appearance on television, especially since it is an entertainment format with a broad and different audience than that of traditional political information spaces.
Sánchez returns to prime time after his record with Broncano
Sánchez’s interview with Javier Ruiz will be broadcast on La última hora, La Séptima’s late-night program. It will be one of the first major political interviews of the network, which began its regular broadcasts last Thursday, November 5.
The new channel, driven by José Miguel Contreras, debuted with a 2.8% share of the screen and managed to ensure that nearly five million viewers tuned in to its programming at some point during the first day.
The president’s visit comes after the success of his interview on La Revuelta on October 22. That broadcast gathered an average of 4,387,000 viewers and reached 33.9% share of the screen, becoming the most-watched program in the history of Broncano’s format.
The figure now serves as a reference for measuring how the interview with Abascal was received, although the audiences of the two leaders will not be directly comparable: Sánchez then appeared without a simultaneous political interview of such relevance, and Abascal will have the president himself in front of him on another channel.
For La Séptima, Sánchez’s presence also represents an opportunity to make himself known among viewers just a few days after his debut. Javier Ruiz’s show had already hosted members of the Government, including the Minister of Economy, Carlos Cuerpo.
Feijóo will go on El Hormiguero on Wednesday, during a general strike
The television coincidence of Sánchez and Abascal forms part of a pre-campaign in which the candidates have intensified their appearances on entertainment programs and in high-audience interviews.
The next to go on one of these formats will be Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who has a scheduled interview on El Hormiguero, with Pablo Motos, on Wednesday, November 11, a day on which a general strike over housing has been called.
Sánchez also has a visit to Antena 3’s program pending, after publicly committing to attend during his interview with Broncano, although a date has not yet been announced.
The three leaders will thus head into the start of the election campaign with a prominent presence on television. This Monday’s appointment, however, has a particular feature: Sánchez and Abascal will speak practically at the same time, on different channels and with two interviewers with very different profiles.
The competition for audience share will be known this Tuesday, when the tracking data for both broadcasts are published.